Painter, model, singer, TV presenter and stage actress, but also a charming woman with an exotic appeal and an ironic personality: in the last 40 years Amanda Lear has often made headlines for her famous friends, her cult summer hits, her numerous flirts. Her place and date of birth are shrouded in mystery since she has never unveiled them. Supposedly she was born on November 18, 1939 in Hong Kong as Amanda Tap and when she was a child she moved to Nice, in France, with her mother. A few years later she left Nice to go first to Paris to study arts and then in London, where she specialized at the Saint Martins School of Art. Those were the 60s and Swinging London was an ideal setting for artists, intellectuals and fashion designer who aimed to upset the status quo. Among them was a still unknown and very young Amanda, endowed with talent and a decidedly unconventional beauty, exotic and intriguing, a quality that later on would have determined her success. Back then she worked at some of the most famous clubs in London, Paris and Milan, performing as a burlesque dancer with transsexual diva Coccinelle.

In the 60s the young dancer was spotted by fashion manager Catherine Harle, who was hunting for unconventional beauties and offered Amanda right away a number of gigs for photographers, magazines and fashion designers: she soon started posing for Helmut Newton, graced covers for Vogue and Elle and walked the runway for Paco Rabanne, Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Mary Quant and Ossie Clark. The turning point came in 1965 when in Paris she met Salvador Dalí, the father of Surrealism, who was struck by her beauty and personality. Amanda became his favorite model, his muse and a lifelong friend, the woman who was always on his and his wife Gala’s side during journeys, press conferences, parties and performances all around the world.

A few years later, in London, Amanda dated Bryan Ferry, the young frontman of Roxy Music, and in 1973 she posed for the cover of the album For your Pleasure.

In 1977 she published I am a Photograph, the album that topped the charts all around Europe, thanks to singles still considered true cult tracks today such as Queen of China Town and Give a Bit of mhh to me. Amanda Lear became the queen of Disco Music and to promote the album went on a long tour which included also Italy where she went on TV. She made some celebrated appearances on TV show Stryx aired by Rai2 in the fall, where she performed bold and flirty dances amidst elves, witches, ambiguous night creatures and hazy forests, much admired but often causing controversy. In Italy she starred in the ironic film Zio Adolfo in arte Furer directed by Castellano and Pipolo, where she sang Lili Marlene in the role of the entertainer of an unlikely group of disbanded Nazi soldiers.

Her hedonism and transgression continued and culminated in the 80s when she released a number of new albums including Diamonds for Breakfast in 1980, and when she started a career as TV presenter. In 1984 she released Ieri, oggi..., collecting all her hits and the following year her autobiography My life with Dalí and another album, Passion, came out. In 1988 a dramatic accident obliged her to a long recovery but this did not affect her determination. It was precisely then that she has the idea of writing an ironic short story on beauty and immortality, L'Immortelle. She kept on making records and launched the celebrated single Tomorrow...voulez vous... un rendez vouz, a true bestseller in Italy. She was so successful that in 1989 she was offered to host Ars Amanda on Italian TV channel Rai3, a night show revolving around intimate interviews to celebrities.

In the 90s Amanda appeared in various TV series and walked the runway for Paco Rabanne. She hosted innovative shows like Il brutto anatroccolo, aired by Italia 1 in 2001, and Cocktail d'amore, aired by Rai2 in 2002. She also went back to the stage with Panique au Ministere and Divina. As a painter, starting from 1981 she took part in various collective shows around Europe and in 2012 walked the runway for close friend Jean Paul Gaultier. In between talent shows she published her latest two albums, I don't like disco, tracing back the success and splendor of disco music, and My Happiness, dedicated to the legendary Elvis Presley.